A vote for Jill Stein, the Green Party candidate for President, is anything but a wasted vote because it’s a vote for democracy. In a land where democracy is lost, that’s big — real big. No vote for Trump, no vote for Clinton can even come close to matching that.

For the first time in many-a-decade a vote for an opposition party is not a protest vote but a vote to return power to the people. With courage, vision and a whole lot of organizing we can build a viable opposition party and break the stranglehold of the decaying machines on American government and on us all.

The two-party system has failed us. Elections have been rigged, the economy is rigged, the prisons are full, the rule of law has no top and no bottom, and the dogs of war have become our masters.

The US Constitution makes no mention of political parties and what the founders feared has come to be. The parties have usurped power and they have rigged the system against “We the People.”

And nothing screams this truth louder than the current contest between fossil fuel promoter, corporate champion, war monger and election thief Clinton and bigot, infantile blowhard, climate denier and fascist pretender Trump. This is what 40 years of voting for the lesser of two evils has come to. This is what a century of two-party rule has wrought.

We will have oligarchy and empire with all the paternalistic trimmings: clever speeches and pretty window dressing. Or, we can have it straight up: mean-spirited and ugly — but we will have it. It is only democracy we can never have.

Unless of course we have the courage and vision to vote for Jill Stein.

It’s In Our Hands

It’s time for some real political competition. It’s time for a real opposition party. Jill Stein puts people, planet and peace over profit. That we think this strange or impossible in a land that once aspired to both freedom and democracy should make us tremble. Justice will not sleep forever and mother earth does not calculate profits or wait on compromise.

There is a way home but the road is rocky.

In the US, the greatest candidate in the world must still break through all the laws passed and traps set by Democrats and Republicans. We have among the most restrictive laws in the so-called democratic world regarding elections. The two parties have regulated political competition, restricted debate and placed mass media under the control of giant corporations that know their class interest always, but truth never.

This election is so wrenching because it revealed just how nasty and vulnerable the system has become. On the one hand, millions turn away in disgust. On the other, millions more are taking a stand. Thanks to the great work of the Stein campaign, the history-making movement of 14 million Bernie Sanders supporters, and the record 43% of Americans registered independents, we have a chance at restoring some measure of democracy to the electoral arena.

And we must recognize, with deep gratitude and solidarity, the role of young people who — living inside the lie that American has become — needed no one to pull back the veil. Together we have a chance at wining.

And Jill can win. With the help of Berner converts, Stein now appears on the ballot in 48 states, an all time record for the Green Party. Keep in mind that in 2008, with the highest turnout in decades, only 57.1% of voting age population went to the polls. Yes, that means that numerical minorities elect the President of the Unites States.

Revolutions happen in stages. 5% is the first stage.

In 1856 a new “third” party — the Republican Party – lost the presidency but upset the existing two-party system by becoming a major party. It was a time of political realignment, deep-seated conflict and vibrant social movements. In 1860 Lincoln won for the new party but earned not a single electoral college in the slave-holding states, not even appearing on the ballot in 10 states. In 10 states Lincoln got zero popular votes but became President none the less.

Perhaps we will make our revolution in stages too. With 5% of the popular vote, the Green Party can make history by becoming the first viable opposition party in living memory. With 5% we can begin to compete more fully on local, state and national stages. 5% is a project we can both imagine and accomplish.

Just 5% of the popular vote wins us:

Minimum of $10 million in public funding in 2020

A place on the ballot in most states. (threshold varies by state.)

Capacity to challenge on the local, state and national level.

National recognition for Green policies and platform

And this, of course, is just the beginning. Four long years of Clinton or Trump will only deepen the crisis so we must prepare. The new social movements grow robust and nothing can stop us now.

We are breaking down the barriers that keep us in our places. Native communities have connected oil with water and the sacred with the political. Protesters have transformed to Protectors. The new civil rights movement sees occupation at home and occupation abroad through the same lens. The peace and environmental movement face interlocking enemies: war drives climate change and climate change drives war. American workers will never prosper without prosperity for workers in Haiti, Honduras, and Columbia. The prison laborer, the fast food worker, the adjunct instructor, and all of us, toil on same supply chain.

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About Richard Moser

Richard Moser has over 40 years experience as an organizer and activist in the labor, student, peace, and community movements. Moser is author of "New Winter Soldiers: GI and Veteran Dissent During the Vietnam Era," and co-editor with Van Gosse of "The World the Sixties Made: Politics and Culture in Recent America." Moser lives in Colorado.